9 Israeli Troops Killed Israel Bombs

‘ Israeli military aircraft bombed a Lebanese army base in the Amsheet area north of Beirut and destroyed a radio relay station in the area, local media reported, citing Lebanese military sources. Meanwhile, Israel warplanes also struck areas in south Lebanon. . .’

The Israeli official line is that they are only fighting Hizbullah and that the huge number of civilian casualties is an accident. But why are they bombing the regular Lebanese army north of Beirut if their real enemy is Hizbullah, a southern Shiite paramilitary? Why are they bombing radio relay stations?

Note that the only way this conflict can end is for the Lebanese state to be strengthened so that it has a hope of dealing with Hizbullah. Uh, these actions are not, like, strengthening the Lebanese state.

donated to Lebanon by the United Arab Emirates, killing its Syrian driver and wounding two others, security sources said. The truck was destroyed just a few kilometres from Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria in the town of Anjar. ‘

The true number of Israeli toops killed Wednesday fighing Hizbullah in the south was 9. 8 were killed in the house to house battle for Bint Jbeil, which the Israelis had announced that they had captured the previous day. The Israelis are now claiming to have killed 250 Hizbullah fighters in the south, but no independent observer puts the number so high. The poor performance of the Israeli army in taking two towns, one of them a village of 400 and now a small town of 30,000, has provoked a firestorm of criticism in the Israeli public.

‘Tehfa says the bombs are not the only danger. Yaroun is all but cut off from the outside world. “Plus, the people die without food. There is no water, no electricity, no gas. Nothing!” she added. Tehfa literally walked to safety, wearing a pair of black flip-flop sandals and carrying nothing but her shiny black handbag. After nearly two weeks under siege, she and a group of about 70 townspeople – waving a large white flag – walked six kilometers to the nearest village, a place called Rmeich. Another Australian, Fatima Salim, managed to find a car to take her to Rmeich, and then slept in a cramped apartment with 80 other people for three days. “I lost my mother, my brother, my sister-in-law. I do not know where they are gone,” she said. “Because I go out from one door, they go out from another door. And for one minute, I cannot see my parents. I do not know where they are.” ‘

France is willing to play a major role in any peacekeeping effort in southern Lebanon. But President Jacques Chirac opposes doing it under the rubric of NATO. He says it is viewed in the region as “the armed wing of the West.” How refreshing to find a president who both knows this and cares what Arabs think.